More trouble from privatized prison food contracts

Aramark is once again proving in Michigan that outsourcing government services to for-profit corporations results in really, really bad service.

A Michigan state prisoner is suing Aramark for serving rotten food just days after the state fined the company $200,000 for serving rotten food.

MLive reports today,

On the menu - Meatballs, gravy, noodles, bread, cooked carrots and cake or a cookie - didn't match what was on the plate, which contained a green and spoiled hamburger patty, cold gravy, cold noodles with a vinegar odor, raw carrots, moldy bread and a green orange in place of dessert, the lawsuit claims. The milk was warm and past its expiration date.

Even as that news broke, Progress Michigan suggested Gov. Rick Snyder was pressuring the Department of Corrections NOT to fine Aramark and then covering up his actions.

Progress Michigan released an email chain between the head of the MDOC, Daniel Heyns and Gov. Rick Snyder’s chief of staff, Dennis Muchmore, that showed the Snyder administration had pressured the department to cancel a $98,000 fine against out-of-state corporation, Aramark, 

Progress Michigan sued the Department of Corrections,

...alleging that the department may have illegally redacted at least 16 emails in whole or in part that were part of a Freedom of Information Act request...

“The Department of Corrections has shown that they cannot be trusted to follow FOIA law when it comes to redactions,” said Lonnie Scott, executive director of Progress Michigan. “We believe information has been illegally withheld and will fight for the release of that information.” 

The FOIA request to MDOC was part of a broader effort by Progress Michigan and other Progress Now affiliates to hold executive offices around the country accountable through public records requests. 

Aramark has been fined twice by Ohio for prison food problems.  The Associated Press reported in July,

The state on Wednesday announced a second fine against the private vendor - Philadelphia-based Aramark - that took over the job of feeding inmates last year as the company defended its operations before a prisons oversight committee. 

The $130,200 fine against Aramark Correctional Services covered continued staffing shortages, unacceptable food substitutions and shortages and sanitation issues, including maggots observed in food service operations at five prisons this month and last, according to Ohio’s July 23 letter to the company.

Prisoners poop in plastic bags at private OH prison

Oh this is lovely. Prisoners have to poop in plastic bags at the Lake Erie Correctional Institute, which is now owned and run by Corrections Corporation of America.

The Huffington Post reports:

A September state audit found that inmates being disciplined in segregation at the prison were using plastic containers and bags as a makeshift restroom, in the absence of working toilets and running water.

But that's not the half of it:

Over the past year, the state of Ohio has assessed almost $500,000 in penalties on CCA related to the Lake Erie prison, deducting $318,000 for staff vacancies and an additional $181,000 in damages for not adhering to its contract. Staffing was a persistent problem at the facility, according to state records.

(In Idaho, Corrections Corporation of America was recently accused of falsifying records to hide chronic understaffing.  We suspect it's not the only state where that's a problem.)

This is what happens with understaffing:

...a major uptick in crime near the private prison has burdened the small town of Conneaut, Ohio, with police there making a series of recent arrests related to attempts to smuggle drugs and alcohol into the facility. Officers responded to 229 calls related to the prison last year, nearly four times as many as the previous five years combined, according to the city's crime data.

Truthout observes that for-profit prison operators view themselves as real estate companies. That may be why they suck so much at running correctional facilities.

In July 2012, the GEO Group - the nation's second-largest private prison operator behind Corrections Corporation of America - sent a letter to the IRS requesting a conversion from a typical "class-c" corporation to a Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT).

Corrections Corporation is waiting on the IRS for approval of the same change.

Truthout argues that the conversion of for-profit prison companies to real estate investment trusts blurs the distinction between people (the inmates) and property.

Troubling.